Honduras

 

17 03, 2026

A decade after the death of Berta Cáceres, we can no longer tolerate threats to environmental activists

2026-10-30T17:52:12-04:00Tags: , , , |

According to Global Witness, 2,253 environmental defenders have been killed since 2012, with Indigenous peoples and small-scale farmers among the most affected. These defenders often face powerful industries and governments while protecting their lands and communities. Berta Cáceres was murdered in 2016 for successfully halting a massive hydropower development along the Gualcarque River in Honduras. She was assassinated by hired gunmen by executives of the company building the dam. In 2019 in Colombia, Francia Márquez, was the target of a grenade and gunfire attack for defending her Afro-Colombian community from illegal mining. Her advocacy and sacrifice led her to be the first Afro-Colombian to be elected vice president of Colombia. The work, legacy, and attacks against these women  inspired international legal efforts to protect environmental activists, such as the Escazú Agreement, the first ever international treaty made so governments had to specifically protect environmental human right defenders in Latin American and the Caribbean. Philanthropists are also providing financial and strategic support to global environmental defenders. While progress has been made, stronger government accountability, enforcement of existing protections, and continued funding are needed to ensure environmental defenders can continue their work without sacrificing their lives.

14 08, 2024

Honduras passes historic law to protect the environment

2026-05-30T11:40:04-04:00Tags: |

Community members of Guapinol in northern Honduras whose livelihood depends mainly on agriculture, livestock, and remittances from relatives in the United States, are slowly returning to using the Guapinol River as a source of shade and clean, clear water, as it had always been until 2018 when the water became heavily polluted after a company started mining in the nearby Botaderos National Park “Carlos Escaleras Mejía.” The park, which in 2016 was named after a Honduran environmentalist who was murdered in 1997, was declared a natural protected area by the government of Honduras in 2012, but in 2013, the protected area was reduced in a process that the UN Commission on Human Rights has documented as “full of irregularities,” which allowed companies to be licensed to exploit it. In response to the park’s legalized exploitation, a committee of 42 members named the “Guapinol Community Environmental Committee” was created, which includes Juana Zúniga, an environmentalist and human rights defender interviewed for the article. The Committee raised people’s awareness to look for answers as to why the river was polluted, and started protests and sit-ins at the municipality which took over the streets. The people who demonstrated against the mining operations faced attacks, and thirty-two human rights defenders were criminalised because of their peaceful exercise, eight of whom spent two and a half years in pre-trial detention, including Zúniga’s life partner, José Cedillo. Shared by Zúniga, “These comrades were being unjustly imprisoned and for us it was a change in our lives. …I had to take the responsibility to stay with my daughters, but also to go on, to go from being a housewife to being at the forefront and show how the government and the company were being corrupt.” In February of 2022 the defenders finally regained their freedom, however, the mining company was still operating, the water was still being polluted, and defenders were still facing attacks which caused many to leave Guapinol for safety reasons. Since 2022, the UN Human Rights Office has worked collaboratively with the Guapinol defenders and provided technical assistance to the National Congress to pass a law that re-establishes the original layout of the National Park and ensures the protection of all protected areas in Honduras by prohibiting the granting of mining rights in declared protected areas, declared water-producing zones, and in beaches and low sea areas declared as tourist areas. This law, the Executive Decree 18-2024, was approved and published in 2024.

17 01, 2024

‘They are waiting for us to give up’: Activists face harassment and killings in campaign to protect rivers in Honduras

2026-05-30T11:45:26-04:00Tags: |

Communities in the municipality of Tocoa, who live in a protected area in North Honduras, are demanding justice for their loved ones who were killed while fighting to protect the local rivers of the area on which the survival of their community depends. The Guapinol and San Pedro rivers, which serve water to hundreds of people in the Bajo Aguán region in northern Honduras, have faced pollution after an iron mine was established in the area in 2018, which affects agricultural and fishing livelihoods. The story of extraction, exploitation, and pollution begins in 2012, when the Congress of Honduras declared the area where both rivers met, in the Botaderos Mountain, a National Park, which in 2016 was named Carlos Escaleras Mejía after a farmer who dedicated his life to defending the local land and water but was murdered in 1997. The park was meant to be protected from the effects of heavy industries, and authorities designated areas that were supposed to be free of activities that impacted the environment and “buffer zones” where mining could take place only after a series of evaluations, including an environmental impact assessment. However, in 2013, the Congress decreased the core zone of the protected area, which allowed the Honduran National Institute of Geology and Minerals to grant permits for mining exploitation in this area. A mining company was awarded a concession in 2014 without informing or consulting local communities about the impacts it would have on their lives. In response to contamination increasing, water quality decreasing, and fishing in the river being affected, in 2015, the community organized the “Municipal Committee for the Defence of the Common and Public Property” of the municipality of Tocoa, and, in 2018, the “Guapinol Community Environmental Committee” (Guapinol Community Council). These groups have led several actions, including a protest camp, but have also faced increasingly brutal repression, including multiple arrests, eight of the community leaders spending more than two years in prison, violence, and assassination. In the Bajo Aguán region, where the Tocoa communities are fighting to protect their water resources, there has been a historic conflict related to land tenure, with over 160 community members killed since 2010. Patterns of harassment and repression have forced many community leaders to leave the region for their safety, but in the face of deep pain, many, including leaders Reynaldo Domínguez and Juana “Monchi” Zúñiga, are convinced that the fight is worth it.

16 04, 2018

Cooperative Agro-Forestry Empowers Indigenous Women In Honduras

2020-04-24T15:47:48-04:00Tags: |

The community of Lenca women, Indigenous to Honduras, has been practicing agroforestry for millennia as a sustainable farming method in their dry region. They are keeping this traditional knowledge alive by growing organic, fair trade crops like coffee in worker-owned cooperatives. Farmers like Eva Alvarado helped to create an all-female growers’ cooperative in 2014, as part of the Cosagual coffee growers’ organization. Their coffee is now sold around the world, and the women bring home a larger share of the profits than before. The Lenca group is known for radical work: Berta Cáceres, the famous Indigenous activist murdered in 2016, also belonged to the community. The idea of this cooperative was seeded at a gender equality workshop with the Association of NGOs. Agroforestry, which involves planting fruit and timber trees in the shade, is an effective way to combat food insecurity, erosion and acts as a carbon sink. Women in Honduras are coping with climate change using agroforestry, a method that can provide a sustainable livelihood to many communities. Photo Credit: Monica Pelliccia

1 03, 2018

Honduran Women Fight For Rights With Their Lives

2018-07-13T16:18:17-04:00Tags: |

Across Honduras, woman activists are fighting for their rights, even in the face of physical and sexual violence, intimidation, incarceration, and sometimes death. Berta Cáceres, who was the co-founder of Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (COPINH) and fought tirelessly against the construction of the sacred Agua Zarca Dam, was gunned down on March 3, 2016. The government, run by President Juan Orlando Hernández, has rejected calls for an independent investigation of her murder. He has also been accused by Human Rights Watch of actively contributing to the oppression of women and girls in Honduras, and a UN report stated that the administration has paid “minimal attention to” gender empowerment. Cáceres’ death has sparked protests and political action nationally and internationally as women call for an end to gender-based violence. In Honduras, a woman is murdered every 16 hours, a number that increased by 263 per cent between 2005 and 2013. Tragically, 96 per cent of femicides reported are never solved. Still, even in the face of bleak statistics, women leaders in Honduras claim that some changes are being made, particularly as the daughters of Cáceres lead the continuation of her fight.  Photo Credit: Elizabeth McSheffrey (use photo of Berta posters in chapter 1)

27 07, 2017

Berta Cáceres’s Daughter Speaks Out After Surviving Assassination Attempt In Honduras

2017-10-27T01:30:44-04:00Tags: |

There was an attempted attack on Bertita Zúñiga Cáceres, the daughter of renowned environmental activist Berta Cáceres, and the new leader of Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) on her way home from a community visit. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now speaks with Bertita Zúñiga Cáceres to get insight into the attack and the possible motives. She is also joined by US Representative Hank Johnson and Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle, a former COPINH member. Photo credit: Democracy Now!

27 05, 2017

Women Heroes Of The Honduran Resistance

2017-10-27T01:06:56-04:00Tags: |

Standing up to dams, mines, logging and unsustainable agricultural practices on your land could cost you your life in Honduras. Honduras has been ranked as the world’s deadliest country for environmental activists. Berta Cáceres, founder of Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) was murdered there for her environmental activism. Melissa Cardoza has dedicated her book “13 Colors of the Honduran Resistance” to Cáceres and women of the Honduran Resistance in the aftermath of the June 2009 coup. Photo credit: Fernando Antonio

13 03, 2017

Local Female Farmers Are Empowered As Agents Of Change

2017-08-22T09:14:11-04:00Tags: |

The Indigenous people of Honduras rely on subsistence farming to feed their families, an increasingly precarious arrangement due to deforestation from large-scale agriculture and climate change. The Women’s Association of Tansin teaches women about sustainable farming, forest management, crop diversification and incorporating tree conservation into their farming. Photo credit: Avery Dennison

27 12, 2016

Intimidation And Death Threats Against Ana Mirian Romero

2017-10-27T00:08:25-04:00Tags: |

Due to her work as a human rights defender, Ana Mirian Romero, along with fellow members of the Consejo Indígena San Isidro Labrador, has been receiving death threats. Since 2010 she has been fighting the development of a project that lacks free, prior and informed consent by the affected communities, the Los Encinos hydroelectric dam. Ana Romero has been through a lot: an arson attack to her house, police raids in her home, physical assaults by the police, harassment by authorities. And yet, once again her life is endangered. Photo credit: Frontline Defenders

27 06, 2016

Ana Miriam Romero Vows To Continue Her Activism In Defense of The Environment

2017-10-27T00:01:34-04:00Tags: |

Ana Mirian Romero, a Honduran human rights and environmental activist, travelled to Dublin in order to receive the 2016 Front Line Defenders Awards. Her work against the construction of a hydroelectric dam was recognized as instrumental to the defense of her community’s ancestral lands. She fights for the possibility of providing Indigenous children with a better future, one in which the air, water and soil are not devastated to benefit companies. Photo credit: Conor McCabe

1 01, 2016

Miriam Miranda And Garifuna Women Fight For Climate Justice

2017-07-17T15:54:14-04:00Tags: |

Miriam Miranda, director of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), is fighting numerous battles for climate and environmental justice. The land and ocean resources of the Afro-Indigenous Garifuna people of Honduras are threatened by foreign extractive industries, violent government land seizure, drug cartels, tourism, and changing ecosystems. Food scarcity, poverty, and climate disasters lead Garifuna men to seek work in the cities or migrate to the United States. As a result, women often bear the brunt of the effects of climate change and the burden of maintaining the Garifuna community’s land and traditions. In response, Garifuna women have set up camps on their ancestral land despite the increasing militarization of the area. They have also begun to replant coconut trees and mangrove forests to counter river erosion and create barriers against rising sea levels. Photo Credit: Felipe Canova, feministing.com

26 10, 2015

Miriam Miranda Fights For The Rights Of Garifuna Indigenous People In Honduras

2017-10-26T23:57:14-04:00Tags: |

Miriam Miranda is a leader of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), an organizations that supports Garifuna Indigenous rights and defends natural resources. She became a women’s rights defender after witnessing the living conditions women suffered in the slums of Tegucigalpa. Since the 2009 coup in Honduras, the encroachment of oil palm interests, drug trafficking, mining, hydroelectric projects, and large-scale tourist development has intensified threatened the well-being of the Garifuna people. Miranda uses traditional song, dance and drumming to revitalize her community while spearheading resistance efforts. Photo credit: Global Fund For Women

17 07, 2014

The Legacy Of Jeannette Kawas Endures

2017-07-20T17:47:02-04:00Tags: |

In 1990, Jeannette Kawas formed the Fundación para la Protección de Lancetilla, Punta Sal y Texiguat PROLANSATE (Foundation for the Protection of Lancetilla, Punta Sal and Texifuat) to protect Honduras’ northern coast from the development of resorts, cattle ranches, palm oil plantations and industrial farming. In 1994, the group’s efforts led to the creation of the Punta Sal National Park, later to be renamed after Kawas in 1995 after she was murdered for her work to protect the forests, oceans and mangroves during her term as the president of PROLANSATE. She is remembered in light of recent declarations that Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be an environmental land defender. Photo credit: Ejold.org

27 10, 2007

Land Loss And Garifuna Women’s Activism On Honduras’ North Coast

2017-10-27T01:01:51-04:00Tags: |

This report looks at the impacts of gendered land loss and privatization on Afro-Indigenous Garifuna women. Land in Garifuna culture is passed through matrilineal lines and thus the expansion of coastal land markets has resulted in women’s loss of territorial control. Whilst collecting testimony to present before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Gregoria Flores, the head of Fraternal Black Honduran Organization (OFRANEH), a grassroots organization promoting political and land rights of Garifuna communities, was shot and wounded. Miriam Miranda, also a member of OFRANEH, was searched by masked men with a warrant signed by a judge. After being forced out of her house, 19-year-old Mirna Isabel Santos Thomas was found dead alongside the road. Land loss issues have rooted Garifuna women in political struggles.

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